


Grey

by Iztarshi (khilari)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Animal Death, Gen, non-human avatar, personhood is when you're smart enough to be an asshole
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23068252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khilari/pseuds/Iztarshi
Summary: Peter meets a parrot that's as Lonely as he is.
Comments: 15
Kudos: 63





	Grey

Peter startles rather badly when claws close around his shoulder and worse when retreat into the Lonely doesn’t get rid of them. He cranes to look at his own shoulder and finds himself eye to eye with an African Grey parrot. The beak which exploratively nudges his cheek is cold as ice and he realises it’s as much at home in the emptiness as he is.

Emerging back onto Portsmouth dock he reaches up to see if he can get it onto his arm and it obliges, stepping easily onto his forearm and turning to regard him with its dull black eyes. “Quiet, Birdie,” it says in a hoarse whisper and Peter chuckles. He can’t say he cares for animals, but it’s rare he gets to meet a Lonely avatar he’s not related to. Rarer still to meet one he doesn’t have to worry about being married off to.

“Charmed,” he says.

*

Peter buys seed and sets up a perch with newspaper under it in his cabin. He doesn’t bother trying to cage Birdie, who can come and go through the Lonely as freely as he can, and the parrot is frequently gone for days. The only time it’s always on Peter’s shoulder is when the Boatswain’s Call sounds hauntingly across the water.

One day it mimics the low chilling sound and then makes an almost silent chuckle when the sailors around it flinch.

*

It’s a warm summer’s day and Birdie’s attention is fixed on a flock of parakeets as it perches next to Peter on a bench. Its mimic of the eerie whistle rings out and a moment later there’s just one parakeet, wheeling and shrieking in panic for its missing flock. Peter watches it smash into a window, the sad bundle of green feathers falling to the ground afterwards. Birdie laughs.

Birdie looks up at Peter, then back at the now returned parakeets. “Say bye-bye,” it whispers. Then it’s gone in a flutter of grey wings and fog.

*

Peter knows Birdie won’t come back. He keeps leaving seed out, but it’s more an offering to his god than to Birdie, and he takes the perch down once he stops caring.


End file.
